New Hair
by journeyman07
Summary: A possible way of explaining the loss of the dreadlocks! Unashamed RK fluffy moments again...yes, I know I am obsessed. Please review, then I will try to be more original with any new fics.


'You want me to cut off your hair?' Jennifer gasped at the Satedan, who leaned against the doorjamb nonchalantly. He was anticipating this and didn't react much.

'Yeah,' Ronon stepped inside her quarters and handed her the pair of scissors; he eyed her almost with a challenge in his dark eyes.

'Why?' she stared up at him, confused.

'Because these,' he indicated the dreadlocks, 'caught fire on that last mission and gave me a bad burn, remember?'

She nodded ruefully; she'd been the one who'd patched him up…again – a long burn on his back as the hair had singed through the Ronon's shirt and into his skin.

'OK,' she murmured nervously, 'sit down over there then, are you really sure about this?' Jennifer asked him as he sat down on the stool offered, still cautious, 'they're so…you…somehow,'

Ronon nodded, 'well, maybe who I am has changed,' he mused unexpectedly, 'I let them dread because then I could just leave them and they provided warmth, now…not sure I need 'em anymore,'

'OK,' Jennifer took hold of one dreadlock and paused saying again, 'are you really sure about this, Ronon?'

He rolled his eyes slightly and nodded, 'Yeah, I am, come on,'

She cut through in one swift closure of the scissors. The hair was thick, but dry and very long. Ronon sat in silence as she snipped away, a veritable forest growing around his feet.

'You'll need to wash it when I've finished,' she murmured, 'I'm having to unravel what's left of each dreadlock as it is, can't cut it that short,'

'Don't want it that short,' Ronon remarked quietly, enjoying the touch of the doctor's slim hands on his mane. She was precise, but gentle – probably what helped to make her such a good doctor, he thought candidly.

Jennifer stepped back and admired her handiwork.

'Go and wash it through there,' she indicated the bathroom, 'it's too dirty and bushy to see the full effect yet, how long since you washed it properly?'

Ronon grinned at her wryly, 'Probably about nine years, I think,'

'Nine years?' she exclaimed in disbelief, then before she could help herself, 'how old are you, Ronon?'

The Satedan did a quick mental calculation, 'In Earth time, I think about 28 years old maybe? So I was 19, yes, when the Wraith took me,' he looked sober for a moment then asked, 'So how old are you, doc?'

'27,' she replied, 'Earth years, of course,'

'OK,' he grinned at her again, 'I'll go wash it now,'

Jennifer cleared up the mass of dreadlocks from the floor, listening to the sounds of water from the bathroom.

Eventually Ronon emerged. He was shirtless, which took Jennifer by surprise for a moment. She had treated him for wounds several times, but had never really taken in how muscular and strong his physique was, nor how scarred. A criss cross of knife and bullet scars dotted his torso and back. Jennifer couldn't help but raise her eyebrows at this sight, hoping that masked the other reaction Ronon's physique caused in her, which was altogether more personal and unsettling.

'Sit down,' she told him, indicating the stool again, 'I'll comb it out,'

That in itself took some doing; the years of matted tangles were only just beginning to free themselves. Ronon winced a few times as she had to pull some knots out.

'There,' she handed him a mirror and watched him looking at the result. Ronon Dex's hair was almost black and it was thick and glossy with loose waves curling over the nape of his neck. She'd always secretly thought him an attractive man, in an alpha male, exotic and scary kind of way. Now he just looked really handsome.

'That's me,' Ronon said quietly, 'that's how I used to look, a long time ago, before…' he paused, lost in his memories for a long moment, then, 'so what do you think?'

She jogged herself out of her reverie and blushed slightly, 'Well, it looks good,' she offered, 'it's different to what we're all used to, but it's good,'

'Thanks, you did a nice job,' he replied,

'You're welcome,' Jennifer replied, handing him his shirt, 'so when does the new Ronon hair get its first outing?'

'Well,' he thought carefully, 'Sheppard is having a movie evening again tonight,' and the Satedan eyed her thoughtfully.

'What?' she wished the feel of his eyes on her wouldn't make her feel hot and as if she was about to flush all the time.

'You going?' he asked her directly, enjoying the flush that did then happen.

'I think so, maybe,' she murmured, looking away.

'Good,' Ronon replied, 'so you can come with me, then,'

She smiled slightly at the self-confidence behind this and found herself agreeing to this invitation.

'OK,'

'Now, let me do your hair in return, only fair,' he grinned as she gaped at him in surprise for the second time that evening.

'Ronon,' she sputtered, 'I do not want dreadlocks,'

'No,' he rolled his eyes and sat her down on the stool, shuffling on behind her companionably, 'braids, I did have sisters, you know,'

'This evening just gets weirder and weirder!' Jennifer Keller quipped lightly, but relaxed at his surprisingly careful touch and found herself enjoying his warm proximity more than she cared to admit.

'It needs cutting across the bottom,' Ronon told her, holding up some dry ends for her inspection.

'OK, but not much,' she murmured, consenting. If anyone had thought that four months into her tenure as CMO on Atlantis, Ronon Dex would be cutting her hair, she would not have believed it, but here she was.

'Tell me about your sisters,' she prompted him, as he finished trimming and began braiding.

Jennifer listened as the words started to come. She'd never ever heard the Satedan say so much and wondered if anyone had. Ronon described his life on Sateda, his family, his fiancee, their life – it was easy for him to talk with this quiet, graceful Earth woman because she truly heard what people were saying. He liked her very much, which was why he'd asked Jennifer Keller to cut his dreads off. She could be trusted with who and what he was.

'What happened to the rings from my hair?' he asked at one point. Jennifer gestured to the chair where they lay.

'OK, you need some decoration in these, so you can have them, if you like?' he offered, his eyes warm. Jennifer turned to look at him, touched.

'Are you sure? I mean I'd love them, they're beautiful.' she breathed.

'Of course,' he confirmed then asked, 'so what's your story, doc?'

And her words also came easily: the death of her mother, the success at medical school and the failed love affair with the child that never was, resulting in her taking the Atlantis post to get as far away as possible from all reminders of this.

Ronon listened, all the while deftly braiding Jennifer's long, blonde-brown hair. He could hear the sadness in her voice as she spoke about her miscarriage and frowned.

'And I have never spoken about that with anyone!' Jennifer exclaimed at one point, as she finished her narrative, embarrassed at revealing such intimate details to this man she hardly knew.

'Has there been no other man since?' Ronon asked her then, curious and beginning to understand why she kept herself distant from other Atlantean personnel.

'No,' Jennifer shrugged, 'not really, it's made me cautious, I think…afraid,'

'I see that,' Ronon said simply and decided not to pursue this topic for now, 'there,'

He finished the last braid and handed her the mirror. Jennifer looked at the perfectly symmetrical patterns and felt deeply touched at the care that gone into their making. She jumped slightly at Ronon's touch as he then lifted some of the braids and drew them back into a long, loose pony tail.

'My rings are fastening these back, it's Satedan style,' he explained, 'you look…' he paused, thinking of the right word, then, 'you look…beautiful,' he added quietly, smiling at the slight flush that mounted her cheeks under his gaze.

'Thank you,' she murmured, 'and thank you for the hair, it's amazing.'

'Suits you,' Ronon admired his handiwork and nodded, 'now, shall we see what movie Sheppard wants us to watch?'

'What happened to the silver rings?' Teyla asked them later with interest. Ronon smiled slightly and nodded at Jennifer, who obligingly turned round so Teyla could see them in her braids.

Teyla admired Ronon's handiwork with even greater interest; she knew what this meant as a Satedan custom, but clearly he had not told Jennifer Keller its significance. She met Ronon's eyes just briefly and knew that he knew she understood the symbolism of the silver rings in Jennifer's hair. Then Sheppard said something and he was distracted by his team captain.

'What is it, Teyla?' Jennifer asked the Athosian, Teyla's intent look had not escaped her.

'Rings in the hair,' Teyla murmured thinking aloud, 'did Ronon offer those to you?'

Jennifer's hand went to the intricately carved rings, immediately concerned, 'yes, should I not have taken them?'

'On Sateda, if a man offers those to a woman it means his intentions are more than friendship, if she accepts them then she's accepting that…and him,' Teyla explained gently, smiling at the blush that crept over Jennifer Keller's face and neck.

'But…' the doctor stuttered, 'I thought, I mean…they weren't being used anymore…so he gave them away… so they weren't kind of redundant…' she trailed off, sneaking a look at the Satedan; Ronon was laughing with Sheppard over something and hadn't noticed them talking.

'Do you think…?' she whirled back to Teyla, her heart hammering.

Teyla smiled slowly and with warmth, 'I do think,' she confirmed, nodding, 'I also think he has chosen well, my friend,' she chuckled at the flush on Jennifer's face.

'But I…'

'Can you not see it, Jennifer?' Teyla prompted gently.

'I…' the young doctor looked increasingly startled and alarmed by this information.

'What is it?' Teyla sensed another agenda, something else that was shaking Jennifer Keller inside.

'It's nothing,' she began, looking away, trying to compose herself.

'You are afraid, Jennifer, why?' Teyla was concerned, and placed a reassuring arm on the other woman's.

'I…uh…' Jennifer, 'uh…have been hurt, badly, Teyla, don't want to do that again,' the doctor cast her eyes down, afraid to show the hurt that lurked there.

Teyla chuckled, grinning, 'this is Ronon we are talking about, Jennifer, Ronon, he's Satedan, and a Satedan soldier no less, I guess when you've been here longer you'll know what that means.'

'Teyla told me what the rings in my hair mean on Sateda,' Jennifer turned to Ronon as they stopped at the door to her quarters. She forced herself to meet the Satedan's dark eyes directly, relieved that his gaze was warm and relaxed.

'She did huh?' Ronon murmured, watching her, his head slightly to one side, 'I thought she might,'

'What do they mean here on Atlantis?' Jennifer asked next.

'What they would have meant on Sateda,' came the direct reply. Ronon grinned slightly as Atlantis' doctor flushed a little, but stubbornly held her ground. He liked that about Jennifer; she never shied away from the things that really mattered.

'Why didn't you say?' she demanded softly.

Ronon stepped up close to her and put one hand gently to Jennifer's face, the other round her waist.

'Would have scared you off,' he explained quietly, 'I can see how much the other man hurt you; I do not wish you any pain,'

To his surprise there was a gleam of tears suddenly in Jennifer Keller's eyes that sprang from nowhere.

'I'm sorry, I have upset you,' he murmured lowly.

Jennifer shook her head and smiled ruefully.

'No,' she whispered, 'it's just hard to forget the past sometimes,'

'If you accept me, I will never be like that, it's not the Satedan way,' Ronon tried to explain.

'What is the Satedan way?' Jennifer looked up at him, wondering how she could have ever found him frightening.

Ronon caressed her face, his eyes warm.

'Love, friendship, protection…which means,' his eyes twinkled with that dry humour she saw more often these days, 'I'll probably kill anyone who tries to harm you in anyway,'

She couldn't help but laugh at that, despite herself.

'Trouble is,' she observed, 'I know you mean that last bit,'

'I mean all of it,' he told her more seriously.


End file.
